Bryn Mawr Philosophy Department Newsletter
September 2007
Robert Dostal, Acting Chair and Major Advisor
WELCOME !
The Philosophy Department welcomes all philosophy students back to campus for
another year of study and conversation together. Three junior majors are studying abroad this
fall and we wish them well: Lauren Forster, Shelley Gupta, and Meera Seth.
We welcome as well Carol Hay and Scott Edgar, two philosophers new to the Bryn
Mawr community. Carol Hay is finishing her doctorate at Ohio State University. Her
dissertation is in ethics and concerns consent and the obligation to resist one’s own oppression.
Her specialties are ethics and feminist philosophy. Scott Edgar is finishing his doctorate at the
University of Pennsylvania. His dissertation concerns anti-psychologism in the philosophy of
science, especially among Neo-Kantian philosophers during the first part of the 20th century.
MAJOR TEA
The major tea will be held on September 18 in the Quite Woodward Room, 4-6 P.M.
There will be food and drink (no tea). The faculty looks forward to seeing returning students and
meeting new students interested in philosophy. All students are welcome. Among other things,
it will provide an opportunity for students to meet and welcome the new faculty.
FACULTY NEWS
Professor Christine Koggel is on leave this year. She is directing an Institute on Global
Ethics at Carleton University in Canada. She will be much missed by faculty and students alike.
Professor Michael Krausz is on leave this fall but will be back in the department in the spring
teaching the philosophy of science (Phil 310), the philosophy of creativity (Phil 317), and culture
and interpretation (Phil 323). Professor Robert Dostal is back from a semester leave, some of
which he spent in Freiburg, Germany. He was working on a project in the philosophy of
language and hermeneutics (the philosophy of interpretation), comparing some critical aspects of
the philosophies of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Donald Davidson. He is teaching a section of
ancient (Phil 101) and a seminar on phenomenology (Phil 338).
We are pleased that Morgan Wallhagen has agreed to return to us this year. This fall he
is teaching an introductory Problems course (Phil 102), metaphysics (Phil 212), and the
philosophy of perception (Phil 347). In the spring he is teaching an introductory section of the
history of modern philosophy (Phil 201), the philosophy of language (Phil 318) and the
philosophy of mind (Phil 319).
Carol Hay and Scott Edgar are officially sharing a position this year with us. Each is
teaching three courses, as you will have seen from the course guide. This fall Scott Edgar is
teaching a section of ancient (Phil 101) and existentialism (Phil 314). In the spring he will teach
theory of knowledge (Phil 211) Carol Hay teaches ethics (Phil 221) this fall and feminist theory
(Phil 252) and social and political theory (B349) this spring.
SENIOR SEMINAR
Professor Dostal will soon be contacting the seniors about a meeting to discuss the senior
seminar and their preparation to write the thesis next semester. There will be individual and joint
meetings this fall for the seniors.
Professor Dostal would also like to meet soon with all majors, junior and senior, to
discuss the possibility of reshaping the senior experience in philosophy.
PHILOSOPHY LUNCH TABLE
We will continue the practice of a weekly lunch together in Haffner, Thursdays at noon.
The faculty encourages students to join us for lunch at this time. For whatever reason over the
past year or two, few students come. We would like to encourage conversation outside the
classroom and whatever is of interest to the students.
DEPARTMENTAL COLLOQUIA
Attached to this newsletter is the schedule for the philosophy department colloquia for
this year. Attendance at these colloquia is mandatory for philosophy majors and minors. It is a
part of the larger conversation in philosophy we will be conducting this year. As has been past
practice, one of the colloquia is a joint sponsored event with the Haverford department. The
event this academic year will be in February. The speaker is Gopal Sreenivasan, an ethicist,
from Toronto. Other colloquia are co-sponsored with computing science and with the School of
Social Work and Social Research. You will notice that some of the talks are scheduled for 4:30
P.M. and others for 7:30 P.M. We will be consulting students about which time slots work best
for them.
Our first colloquia is Wednesday, September 19 at 7:30 P.M., Professor William
Rapaport of the State University of New York at Buffalo will talk on the philosophy of
computing science.
A GIFT TO THE DEPARTMENT: CAUMAN LECTURESHIP
The Philosophy Department has recently been the recipient of a generous gift which will
endow funds for an annual guest lecture in honor of Leigh Stenhart Cauman, an alumna of Bryn
Mawr and the philosophy department. The department will be discussing with students how this
might best be organized with regular student involvement.
PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT SEARCHES
The Bryn Mawr Philosophy Department will be conducting a national search this year for
a new tenure-track member of the department. This person will be occupying the position that
Cheryl Chen had. In the fall the department will accept applications and determine a short list
for interviews at the national meetings during the winter break. At the beginning of semester II
three to five candidates will be invited to campus. They will give talks and meet with faculty
and students. Holly Stewart will be the student representative on the search committee. We
will be encouraging students to actively participate in the process. We have advertised the
position nationally and have defined the position as someone with broad philosophical interests
whose specialty includes one of the following: philosophy of mind, cognitive science,
epistemology, philosophy of language, or metaphysics.
The philosophy department at Haverford is also conducting a national search for a new
tenure-track member. Their process is much like ours. They will be searching for someone in
ancient philosophy. This is a replacement for the retired Professor Aryeh Kosman.